This invention relates to a burner and more particularly to a heating chamber utilizing a low NOx floor burner to create an elongated upwardly-extending or downwardly-extending flame from burners mounted at or near a floor or ceiling of a chamber to heat an adjacent array of fluid processing equipment.
Significant environmental and other problems have been encountered due to the production of flue gases containing high contents of NOx, which tends to react under atmospheric conditions to form environmentally unacceptable conditions such as urban smog and acid rain. In the United States and elsewhere environmental legislation and restrictions have been enacted, and more are expected to be enacted in the future, severely limiting the content of NOx in flue gases.
Various burners have been proposed over the years in an effort to reduce NOx emissions. For example, special vortex burners have been successful in furnace walls to reduce NOx emissions.
Morck U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,481, which was granted to Selas Corporation of America on Dec. 16, 1980, discloses a wall-mounted vortex burner capable of burning a variety of gases having various Wobbe indices. The '481 burner produces a whirling gas that mixes with air and the mixture ignites and is thrown laterally outwardly onto a cup-shaped wall-mounted recess surrounding the burner, and then to the surface of the furnace wall.
Morck U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,620, granted to Selas Corporation of American on Nov. 22, 1983, discloses a large capacity wall-mounted vortex burner designed for burning petrochemical gas. It also functions in a wall-mounted cup.
Van Eerden et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,776, granted to Selas Corporation of American on Dec. 16, 1997, discloses a vortex burner capable of; burning either liquid petroleum gas or 100% hydrogen or any mixtures of the two, or of burning natural gas.
Over and beyond the disclosures of these patents, a significant need has arisen for a low NOx burner that can be mounted at or near the floor or ceiling of a furnace or other heating chamber, and aimed upwardly or downwardly to heat substantially vertically arrayed banks of process tubing or the like.